Truth from Hosea

Cain, Lloyd

“They are like a deceitful bow.” Hosea 7:16

A bow is only valuable when it propels the arrows in a straight course. A deceitful bow cannot be depended upon for clear direction and one will never know what direction the arrows will take. Joshua was not a deceitful bow for, “Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua” (Josh 24:31). Jehoiada was not a deceitful bow for, “Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, all the days of Jehoiada the priest” (2Chron 24:2). Paul told Timothy that “the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also” (2Tim 2:2). He was not to be a deceitful bow!

In Psalm 127 children are looked upon “as arrows in the hand of a mighty man.” They are to be directed. The directing must take place before they leave the bow. Eli was a deceitful bow “because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not” (1Sam 3:13). Similarly, David was not faithful with his son Adonijah, for “his father (David) had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so?” (1Kings 1:6) Adonijah was not directed!

What type of bows are we to other believers, to our families, in the world?

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” Hosea 8:7

This is an unchanging principle in the laws of God controlling the universe that “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). Here we see the principle that when we sow the wind, we will reap the whirlwind!

IN Romans 1:18-23., we read of those who sowed the wind. The passage shows us that the Divine light was rejected. Verses 24-32 of the chapter show us the depraved life that resulted. Truly, they were reaping the whirlwind! In Isaiah 51:11 there s a warning of the whirlwind for those who deliberately take a path of disobedience. “Behold all ye that kindle a fire; that compass yourselves about with sparks. Walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of Mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.” David sowed the wind in his sin with Bathsheba. He was reaping the whirlwind when, out of the depths of the sorrows of his soul, he wrote Psalm 51. When one sows, he always intends to reap more that he sows. (2 Cor 9:8-10). This is so when we sow for good and it is also so when one sows for evil. Stop a moment! Are you “sowing the wind” in the relationships you are contemplating? Are you “sowing the wind” by regressing in your Christian experience?